Please show us the corresponding text passage in your contract. 

The purpose of such blockings is to protect both the customers and o2 from greater financial damages. It is an automatic process which cannot be influenced by the customer service agents.

When you don’t try payments for a longer period, the blocking will be deactivated automatically.

Thanks for the input Omnikron, but you misunderstood. (add: though you should work for them, as just the information you gave would have saved me such stress. So please do not take offense.)

3rd party purchasing may not be specific within the contract, but is certainly implied in their "All-in" packages (and possibly is specific in the contract, but I cannot confirm at this time). If it wasn't part of their services at that time, I certainly would have used Vodafone or someone that does offer that service...it is 2021...

That this security feature is present is not the issue but rather how it is implemented and the wrong advice the service agent gave, and the attitude of the 2nd service agent when I followed THEIR instructions to correct the issue as their help site advises to refer to the hotline when there are issues or questions. This has proven to be wrong. Once the security has been triggered, and the advice given to recover has been followed; I do not appreciate nor deserve some agent disregarding my issue as though I am her child saying basically, its my fault...deal with it.

If you believe it takes a month to reactivate an online account in 2021, whether customer service can or if the particular issue must be escalated to be fixed, I would question your integrity. The security feature worked properly... Subsequent support to fix the issue did not and the frustration of not having any other contact channel than you, Omnikron, is an embaressment for the customer service O2 professes to value.

Unfortunately the o2-agents you spoke to gave you some wrong information. This should not happen, and I understand your complaint very well.

I can only repeat my piece of advice: Try and avoid any payment for a while. I don’t see alternatives that could work.

By the way: I am just a customer, even though I may be one of the more experienced ones in this forum.  

Regards

Omikron

Notwithstanding the customer service failures you are complaining about here (and I understand are your main concern), you should be aware that also Vodafone and the other providers reserve the right to limit or withdraw access to such third party payment options and none of them explicitly guarantee availability in their contracts. There are customers who have payment limits of 5 Euros, others who have 100 Euros and others who have no access to the services at all. One problem is the lack if information available to customer services staff. They only see that access is blocked and nothing else. That doesn't excuse misinformation of course.

The easiest thing is to use a different payment method for a couple of weeks.

Still no service, and still NO contact from o2 service team other than automated email asking if problem was solved. The answer is,  Hell no! you have NOT been helpful. O2 customer service is SO bad im looking for a more English friendly provider who stand by their service team. 

Worst customer service experience of my life.

XXXXXXXXXXX

edit o2_Tobias: last sentence deleted according to our community rules

Hi @Your-Victim, 

welcome to our English Community. Nice that you found the way to our community. I understand your disappointment concerning the use of third-party-services. 

I regret that you are not satisfied with our customer service. Of course, in the corona-pandemic it is even more important to get some personal support. 

Great that @bs0 and @Omikron already told you the reasons for blocking you sometimes for third-party-services.   

Third-party services are easy to use, but frequent use can be very costly. This makes these services very interesting for fraud scenarios. As a responsible telecommunication service provider, Telefónica Germany tries to counteract this and to protect its customers. Please understand that this measure is for your protection. You can use the services again after a waiting period of 1 to a maximum of 7 days. By the way: Third-party provider services are not provided by Telefónica Germany. o2 only offers the infrastructure for simple and secure billing via mobile phone bill.

Please understand that we cannot unblock you for the use of third-party-services. This is done automatically. I regret that you got a wrong information concerning the waiting-period until you can use third-party-services again. 

If you like to have additional information concerning the payment by invoice, please read these instructions: Third-Party Providers & value-added Services 

If you have any further questions, just feel free to contact us here in our English Community. 

Loving greetings,

Tobias

Hi Tobias,

Although I appreciate your position, I regret to say you are wrong. It has been a month now since i paid the additional charges accrued, as instructed to do by customer service, and the issue persists. And one of the hotline team members said it's actually up to a month of being blocked (when i asked about the issue a week after paying). 

So obviously your hotline has and distributes different information than you posted, and as I have completed an escalation ticket with Google, where they confirmed the issue is on O2's side. 

And when a person takes the dismissive, ignorant, and negligent manner in which this issue has been handled, it is overwhelmingly frustrating; as I only used the services offered and encountered a hidden security feature that required contact with incompetent customer service to resolve. 

I like O2 as a company but my experience here has put my loyalty to O2 in jeopardy.

To review.. Yes i know its a security feature for my protection but its implementation and recovery process is the worst customer experience possible... It needs to be fixed. 

What needs to be fixed is the communication by customer services to the customer.

The 7 days mentioned by Tobias are the niorm, but there are also situations when this can be longer (or even permanent).

Things to be fixed:

1. Customer service should have 1 set of instructions for the issue with clear steps and time frames. 

2. There should be a.contact channel for customers with issues beyond the norm... Somewhere more private where customers dont need to explain 4 times to people who arent involved. Seems my privacy isn't important. 

3. App (mein o2) and website should have links to info in English and instructions for additional contact.

4. A process to avoid the block should be established in the future... As a legitimate customer, I should have the ability to use the service offered. 

I have repeatedly stated I understand the security issue and that the garbage customer service, incorrect information and disregard for customer satisfaction are the factors to be fixed.

This is a public discussion forum where anyone may offer their opinion if they wish to. Nobody has prevented you from offering your opinion on the subject, so I would kindly ask you to respect that. If you don’t want to talk about or discuss this publicly, then a forum is probably not the right place for you.

I do understand your issue and respect (and partially agree with) your opinion on what you think needs to be improved, but this is just not something that anyody here can “fix”.

bs0, 

You are right about the ability to post and ill edit my last as your post has been editted. 

This issue would be better resolved via email... But that's not an option it seems.

Oh and another public suggestion…

O2 should consider using the community moderators they have established relationships with (such as bs0 and Omnikron), to be able to escalate or transfer issues for direct contact. With a bit of collaboration between community service and customer service, you would be better able to help everyone. There is no information I received from the official moderator that the community moderators didn't touch on the day of posting. A month later did nothing to resolve my issue but did disappoint and frustrate me to the point of being rude.

Neither bs0 nor I are moderators.

bs0 is a “community expert”, a kind of superuser, and I’m just a user like you.